


The Reality in Dreams

by chillyacademic



Category: One Piece
Genre: Boss/Employee Relationship, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Unhealthy Relationships, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:26:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21862927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chillyacademic/pseuds/chillyacademic
Summary: Focused of Robin, who has a tough time deciding what to do with an unexpected pregnancy.
Relationships: Crocodile/Nico Robin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	The Reality in Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for checking this out! I haven't written a fanfic in 5 years, so I'm a bit rusty. I hope you like!

How long had it been?  
Robin studied herself in her bathroom mirror. She looked tired. Heavy bags under her eyes. Nightmares had plagued her mind for many nights by now. Far more than she could count. Her vision felt blurry and it felt like an eternity since the last time she had a good night sleep. Dreams usually didn’t linger that long after she’d woken up, but these ones… they stayed. They stayed in her mind during the days and repeated themselves at night. It was always the same nightmare.

In her dreams, she was alone. Darkness surrounded her, making her unable to see as she stumbled around. She heard her mother’s voice, calling her name, but it echoed all around her. Robin couldn’t tell from what direction the voice came from.  
Eventually she stopped fumbling with her steps. She saw a faint light in the distance and heard another familiar voice. Her own, but from when she was a child.  
The voice didn’t say anything particular, only laughing playfully, however it soon turned sour and Robin heard her young self tell her to stop trying.  
Confused, but determined to reach that tiny little source of light, she began to run as fast as she possibly could. Thunder rumbled behind her but she didn’t look back. She came closer, but the thunder followed her, dark clouds found their way in front to cover her view.  
Soon enough she didn’t see the light anymore. The sound was getting stronger and she felt trapped. The clouds started to choke her. Gasping for air, she always woke up right before she perished.

The feeling of being trapped lingered once she was awake. It had never been this bad before, not since she found refuge with Crocodile.  
At first, she had been cautious with him. Robin didn’t believe him as he promised protection, but he had proved to her early on that he most certainly could provide. His status as a Warlord helped chase off most people, but he wasn’t one to shy away from outright killing anyone who tried to hurt her.  
While being appreciative of their deal, she was wary. Crocodile was hard to read, at least in the beginning. 

Over time as they worked together, their strickly business-related relationship developed. They had friendly banter with each other, something neither of them were very used to. They even started to have dinners together.  
Shared dinners. Those had been rare in the past. Robin hadn’t shared a meal with anyone for years. Everyone she had met treated her like a terrifying monster.  
Crocodile didn’t care though. Even if he saw her a monster as well, he never showed it. In reality, he was more of a demon than she was. 

They found out they had more things in common than they had originally thought. One interest was classical music. Robin could catch him humming on old serenades, albeit those times were rare, but she thought that aspect of him was rather… cute, in a way. The music was something that brought them closer.  
She felt safe with him. Or rather, she felt safer. Robin knew she’d never be completely out of harm’s way, but staying in Alabasta together with Crocodile was what was best for her survival.

Their friendly banter slowly turned intimate. Small jokes that turned serious. After all, they only had each other.  
Perhaps it had been the wine they shared a few nights a week that had helped start it off or perhaps it had been them being weary from the days to the point where they just needed some kind of comfort in each other.  
Either way, one thing had led to another and they shared a kiss one late afternoon. It came naturally after a glass of champagne, celebrating a massive economic profit from Rain Dinners.  
She remembered him tasting too much of cigars, but also faintly of champagne as well seeing as they recently had had it to drink. The mix hadn’t actually been all too bad, but Robin wondered if she had been too tipsy to even notice any bad taste. 

After a couple of more drinks, they ended up sleeping together that same night and Robin found herself enjoying it far more than she initially thought she would have.  
It hadn’t been her first time with someone, no, but she had still been a bit nervous once she realised where their kisses were leading up to. Not because she hadn’t wanted to, because she very much had the desire, but she had been a bit worried about letting Crocodile down. She hadn’t wanted to drive him away now that they had had... something.  
The pleasantry warm embrace she had been wrapped up in after they finished told her that she probably hadn’t had to worry about it at all.

So there she was. Robin felt more human again. It felt good to be able to go to Crocodile when she needed company and she showed it through her work performance.  
She was actively recruiting more members for their organization, as well as taking on much more paperwork than she had to, but she liked it. It was a good kind of stress that she herself had chosen. She had regained more control in her.  
Fear didn’t stop her now. 

Until it did. Until the nightmares came for her. 

After washing her face with some cold water, she let out a heavy sigh. Fortunately she didn’t have anything planned for today that required her to be among people. She didn’t feel like she had energy to smile, not even to fake smile. Today just wasn’t her day.  
It didn’t help that she was feeling nauseous. It had begun a couple of days earlier, but it had been manageable. Now she felt sick. She assumed it was the time of the month.  
However...

How long had it been?  
It was late. Very late. Robin realised she hadn’t paid it any attention to it because of her lack of sleep and consistent thoughts, but now that she stopped to actually think about it, it was clear that her period was late. It should’ve started a week ago. Robin was lost in her thoughts for a moment before she brushed it off.  
It had only been a week after all. The lack of sleep was most likely the problem, so she figured it would return once she managed to get some more sleep.  
After brushing her hair, she went back out to her bedroom to get out of her nightgown and into something comfortable. 

Crocodile wasn’t around in Rain Dinners that morning, as he had business elsewhere, so Robin decided to go to his basement to be completely alone. Looking out through the big windows, she watched the bananawani floating around on the outside.  
While they weren’t exactly pets any ordinary person would use, Robin liked them. Despite them being known for being savage, fearless killers, she thought that they looked adorable.  
The way they swam around slowly was calming to her and Robin moved from her spot at the window to one of the sofas that was closer to the middle of the room.  
The darkness in the room along with the quiet atmosphere eventually made her drift off into a slumber. Surprisingly, nothing was plaguing her mind during her sleep.  
After what felt like hours, she was suddenly awoken by a light shake. 

“Sleeping on the job? Doesn’t look good, Miss All Sunday.”  
Crocodile’s familiar voice made her open her eyes and look up at him. It took a couple of seconds before she slowly sat up properly, as well as hiding yawn with her hand..  
“My meeting got cut short, so I’m back again.” Crocodile continued as he walked over to his desk. Once there, he pulled off his coat and hung it on the side of his armchair before sitting down on it with a tired grunt.  
“I think I deserve a nap or two once in a while.” Robin watched him with a faint smile.  
Crocodile shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose.” he replied. 

Silence fell over them.

Robin considered to keep quiet, however she still opened her mouth to speak.  
“I haven’t been able to sleep as of late, that is all. This was the first time in a while that I could finally relax enough to fall asleep.” she said, her gaze turned to the white, marble floor in front of her feet. “Nightmares.”  
There was no answer at first. Robin gave him a glance, but he wasn’t looking at her. He had turned on the desk lamp and browsed through some papers he had in front of him.  
“We all have bad dreams.” he said eventually. It was obvious he didn’t take her troubles very seriously by the tone of his voice.  
“I… I guess we do.” Robin nodded. 

There was a silence between them again and Robin was about to get up and leave when Crocodile spoke again, surprising her as she didn’t think he’d talk more to her.  
“So they’re really bothering you, aren’t they?” he said as he finally looked over at her. There was a slight hint of compassion in his voice now.

Robin got up on her feet. “I’ll manage, Crocodile. You don’t need to worry about it. Thank you for the concern.” she said before she gave him a goodbye smile and exited the basement to continue on with the rest of her day.

Another week went by, but the trouble with sleeping remained. Robin still had nightmares and the nausea was getting worse. Her period still hadn’t arrived which made her increasingly more anxious. It could of course still be the lack of sleep, but she had her suspicions about something else. Something far more serious.  
So she decided to head out. Rainbase was a large city and the further away from Rain Dinners she went, the less people would recognise her. After a longer walk through several blocks, she ended up in a small pharmacy where she bought a pregnancy test.  
She wasn’t a believer of any kind of god, but she prayed that she was just being paranoid. That something like this hadn’t happened. 

After a long walk back, she came back to Rain Dinners and went through it to get to her bedroom. Once there, she locked the behind her and opened the package.  
She heard her own heartbeat as she stood still in the room, looking at the test for what felt like an eternity.  
It still wasn’t too late to throw it away and pretend nothing happened. 

But she had to make sure. She had to know.  
Her legs took her to her private bathroom and she took the test behind closed doors. The waiting time was the worst. Every scenario went through her head as she stared at the test to reveal the results.  
When it finally did, her whole body froze up.

Positive.

_Fuck._

That’s why her period was so late. That’s why she often felt nauseous at times.  
They had been careful when they were intimate, she knew that, but obviously not enough. 

_Fuck!_

A million thoughts went through her mind. Why her? Had she not enough things to think about?  
All signs pointed to misery. A child in this environment was a bad. Being pregnant in this environment was a bad. Crocodile being the father was especially bad.  
Family didn’t exist in her mind. Family didn’t mean anything to her anymore. What she and Crocodile had wasn’t long term. As soon as they find the poneglyph and he’s found Pluton, he’ll have no use for her. They’ll go their separate ways.  
Bringing a child into this factor, connecting the two of them. Now that would be the biggest weakness of them all. 

Yet, a part of her wasn’t so hesitant. The emotional part of her brain thought otherwise.  
What if this was her only chance at becoming a parent? Passing on her knowledge to someone she could trust. She had always expected to die young, so why not take the opportunity when it had so graciously shown itself? It was silly really.  
Deep down, she already knew what she had to do though, but she didn’t want to decide on a whim.

She stood silently for a while. It was still early, wasn’t it? Maybe the test was wrong? Logically it probably wasn’t wrong, but Robin wanted to believe it was. At least for a while longer so she could think. To accept it.  
So what happens now? She obviously didn’t look pregnant, not yet. Perhaps waiting a few weeks would help? That way she could take her time with this. It wasn’t as easy as she thought it’d be, but doing easy things had never been her thing after all. 

Over the course of a couple of days, her nightmares weren’t as bad as before. They started the same, but although she never saw any light, she never choked to death either. It was just dark. She was still fumbling around.  
During the nights, she got more hours of sleep and didn’t look as exhausted like before. It gave her a better view of what’s to come. 

Crocodile hadn’t noticed anything other than that she looked more alive again. He hadn’t commented on it though, but she knew that he had seen it. She looked at him often, now more than ever.  
Robin wondered what kind of parent he would be, what kind of parents he had. She couldn’t exactly imagine him being a child and even less him having a child.  
He had been around children though before. Because of his status as the ‘hero’ of Alabasta, many people adored and flocked around him, amongst them children, when they were out in public.  
To keep up with his hero persona, he had to play nice with civilians, despite hating it. I If he had to interact with young children, he gave them a story and did some tricks with the sand to entertain them.  
He could easily fool them, letting them think he was a kind man, but Robin knew that if they stood in his path after he’d found Pluton, he’d kill them with no remorse.  
Robin doubted he’d even stop for his own child if it interfered with his ambition.

Two weeks suddenly went past. A decision was made and that decision was termination. Robin still hadn’t gone to a doctor to talk about it though. It was as if something was pulling her back from going through with removing the fetus.  
Nothing indicated from the way she looked that she was pregnant fortunately. She didn’t have to do much disguising at all, but she knew it was just a matter of time. She had to just suck it up and go do it. Then it’d be over and she wouldn’t have to think about it anymore.  
Everything she and Crocodile had built up during the time she’d been with him would’ve been ruined if she had their child. Everything. She couldn’t let that happen. A new life wasn’t worth it.  
That night, she dreamt the same dream again, but this time it didn’t feel like a nightmare. This time she saw the light again, but instead of her running towards it, the light came to her.  
Within seconds, everything around her was completely bright. It was quiet. No voices this time, but she felt relieved.  
For the first time since her nightmares started, Robin slept a full night and when she woke up, she finally felt like she had the courage to go. Today was the day.

As she sat up in her bed in the morning, she held a hand over her stomach and bit her lower lip slightly before letting go and getting up. This was it. 

The very next night, she felt a heavy weight had lifted from her shoulders. Another time, another life, and this might’ve been possible, but she knew it never could’ve been.  
That night, she didn’t dream a thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading til the end! I hope you enjoyed.


End file.
